What are some recommended online certificate programs for business people?

I’m interested in online distance learning courses that are uniquely suited for entrepreneurs. I’m naturally a risk taker. Therefore, I didn’t plan so much about how I was going to run my business before I started it. However, I’ve been able to face many challenges of growing a new idea. Now I want to enroll in a center for online education to better equip myself for the future. What are the best online certificate programs in the field of business?

1 answer

Jennifer Pattersonon May 16, 2018

The business industry has the most distance learning online courses you can find in a single field of study. It is a broad field that you can hardly exhaust exploring no matter how much you study. So, as an entrepreneur, make learning your friend because it never stops.

I would recommend that you consider paid courses as opposed to free ones. I will elaborate the disadvantages of free programs later in this text.

Websites you can find the best online certification programs:

Stanford University

Stanford offers eight entrepreneurship and innovation courses, which you can do online. You can see the requirements on their site by following the link above. However, you may require having a bachelor’s degree and a few years’ experience in the business world. Stanford has quite a strict assessment process, and each application is reviewed individually.

Harvard Business School

Harvard online school offers several courses in business and entrepreneurship. Examples of these certification courses include Financial Accounting, Leading with Finance, Becoming a Better Manager, Negotiation Mastery, Business analytics and Entrepreneurship Essentials. You can get the dates for the commencement of classes and the price for a course you chose from their website.

Udemy

This list would not be complete without this famous online education center. It is famed for both quality online courses and the best prices in the market. Once you are on the business courses’ page, you will find courses displayed from the highest rated to the one with the least rating. There is also plenty of advice on individual courses for previous students. Also, ensure you take advantage of the regular discounts that Udemy offers for their various courses.

To conclude, when you search for business or entrepreneurship courses, you are likely to get hundreds of free courses. However, tempting they may be, they have their drawbacks. They are good for people with no business-related knowledge but may not be helpful to those with some experience in the business industry. A free course may have several dozen students enrolled at a time thereby limiting student-teacher interaction to zero. Moreover, most free courses do not give any credential on completion.

However, if you have the budget or financial constraints and therefore cannot afford the first two options I have mentioned, you may consider a low-cost alternative, as long as it has learner-instructor interaction and a certificate. Udemy has a variety of cheaper options that you may try.

Cynthia Baker10 months ago

I would disagree with this view about free online certificate programs. Having run a medium-scale restaurant, I have had many challenges. I was employed for five years in my early 20s before I secured a large loan to start my restaurant.

When I began, I had no prior knowledge of how a business is run. I did a lot of guessing back then before I realized that I needed to go back to school and learn relevant business management courses.

The problem was that I had invested all I had in my business, which was yet to return the starting capital. So I searched online free business courses and enrolled in a couple. I can confidently say that they saved my business. At this point, I can’t pay for a class I can get free.